


No One is Alone

by enoughiamagod



Series: Elf-Kings and Woodlands [1]
Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)
Genre: elf names are fun, father!thranduil, loosely structured around the hobbit, possible tauriel love interest, takes place after the hobbit, thranduil is sad, will expand as develops
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-09
Updated: 2015-07-17
Packaged: 2018-03-06 18:50:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3144806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enoughiamagod/pseuds/enoughiamagod
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thranduil, Tauriel, and Legolas fight to hold on.</p><p>part of my Elf-kings and Woodlands series, so if you like this, check out the other parts!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. the last midnight

**Author's Note:**

> I'll update.  
> Do not own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> don't own

When Thranduil was a young elfling, silver hair barely to his shoulders, his father took him through the woods.  
“This will be yours, my son,” his father said, voice like steel and moonlight, and Thranduil trembled. “These trees, these birds, these peoples, all yours to guide and care for.”  
“But Father,” Thranduil said, small and scared, “how will I know what to do?”  
His father smiled and knelt down so that he was eye to eye with the elfling.  
“You will not always know, my child. You will stumble, and you will fall. But you are my son, and I know you will tread the right path, though the woods be dark and dim.”

 _It has been hard, Ada,_ Thranduil thinks. _I have lost my son, my daughter, my wife. I have lost everything. The woods are dark, and I fear I have lost the path._

He sits alone, in front of a fire, staring beyond it, seeing the face of his wife, and then his son’s face as he took his leave, and then the last glimpse he got of Tauriel, his daughter, her face lined with pain and grief, and his own heart aches. He is old, so many centuries old, and he is weary, and he has nothing. 

 

_Perhaps, Ada, it is time._


	2. be both father and mother

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thranduil, Tauriel and Legolas and how they came to be a family.
> 
> Told in a series of one-shots, which will be updated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do not own.
> 
> This is my attempt at re-imagining Tauriel as a rather more sympathetic character rather than merely a love interest.  
> There will be Sindarin used throughout, and I will always provide a glossary. If someone who knows more than I see that I use it wrong (highly likely) please let me know so that I can fix it! :)
> 
>  
> 
> Lach -fire in Sindarin  
> Anor-sunlight.

It had been 600 years since he had taken Tauriel in, had found her in the forests alone. Her parents were dead, and she was close herself, shaking and pale. He had been roaming the woods, restless as he had been since the death of his wife, and the sight of a elfling, so small and fragile, with a shock of red hair, had touched him deeply. So many lives had been lost in the wars and skirmishes, but this one? This was one he could save.  
“Tauriel,” he had whispered, gathering the infant to his chest. “Daughter of Mirkwood.”

She opened her eyes at the sound of his voice, and Thranduil’s heart was lost.

  
And so it came to pass that the young elf king, so soon widowed and with a son who was not long out of infancy, raised an orphan elf as his own.

Tauriel was fire. While Legolas was docile, gentle, she was rough and impulsive, and often they would get in trouble together, for Legolas could never tell her no.   
As they grew, she and Legolas were inseparable. On the training field they paired often, and soon Tauriel’s skill surpassed even that of fighters several centuries her age, and by the time she reached young adulthood, it was clear that she was one of the top fighters in Thranduil’s court. He was always amused by watching her, red hair aflame in the sun, as she danced and parried, her blade almost as bright as her hair, and his son, blond hair like sunlight, as he in turn moved this way and that. His children were strong and true, and Thranduil loved them with a fierceness that surprised even himself.

 

Thranduil misses his children, his _anor_ and his _lach_. Without them there is no warmth, no light.


	3. stay with me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tauriel is promoted to Captain. Legolas receives his second name. Thranduil reflects on these events.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't own.
> 
> Not sure where this is going.
> 
> amilessë-second name, sort of a nickname, that elves take. traditionally given by the mother.

 

It was the day Tauriel was to be appointed to Captain of the Guard, serving alongside a nephew of Thranduil’s.

Thranduil was waiting for her in the throne room, seated on the throne his father had built. Tauriel was young, and impulsive, barely past her teens, but she had proven herself worthy. Thranduil was not worried about appointing her.

In fact, he had his own motives for doing so.

His nephew, Tinnuon, approached. Tall and willowy, like his people, _like my wife_ , Thranduil thought, Tinnuon was handsome, and kind, and Thranduil hoped that perhaps Tauriel would find it in herself to esteem Tinnuon.

Tinnuon, for his part, was already half in love wih the firey young elf. Most of the warriors were, for she was strong and capable, but never gloated about besting another.

“Tinnuon,” Thranduil says now, smiling.

“Uncle,” he replied.

“She is strong willed,” Thranduil says, and Tinnuon inclines his head. He knows. “She listens to her heart over her head. She values bravery and dedication.”

“She will make an excellent choice, Uncle.”

 

The doors sweep open and Tauriel glides in, clad in warrior’s formal wear rather than the traditional female dress clothing, and Thranduil internally chuckles. T _auriel, the little warrior_ , he thinks proudly. _She would make my wife proud._

Her brother Legolas follows, clad in his archer’s clothes, and Thranduil nods at both of them.

“Ada,” they say, and bow. He may be their father but he is also their king. He has raised them to know that, to see their duty to the kingdom as above all, even filial bonds, and as they stand back up, he can’t help but smile at them.

“My children.” He beckons Tauriel forward. “I have something for both of you, though I will start with Tauriel.”

She steps forward, red hair braided back, face set proudly.

“Tauriel, you have shown exceptional skill in the arts of war. I would ask that you use those skills in service to me as a Captain in my guard.”

Tauriel kneels down, instantly, and Thranduil knows she has been waiting for this her entire life.

“My lord and father, I would be honored.” He reaches down and pulls her up, and to his surprise she hugs him. “Thank you, Ada,” she whispers. “I won’t let you down.”

* * *

 

But she does, and she did, and she’ll never forgive herself.

 

* * *

 

She steps back next to Legolas, and Thranduil nods at him.

“Legolas, you have reached your majority, and you have no _amilessë_. When you were born, your mother held you up to the trees, so that the world might see the son she bore. You laughed, and you reached out and grasped a single leaf.

Legolas Greenleaf, your mother wanted. Legolas Greenleaf, I name you in place of your mother, who would be proud of you.”

* * *

 

When Legolas is in the court of Elrond his friend, he remembers those words, and he wonders _Mother, would you be proud of me now?_

He is afraid of the answer.


	4. no more, please

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thranduil tries to heal by taking a love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PG-13 for implied sexual content (nothing graphic)

Thranduil has taken into his chambers a human woman. He has never before done this, and when she gestures to be undressed he does so, hesitantly, with shaking hands and trembling lips.

 _It has been so long, my love,_ he thinks to his wife. _So many centuries since I have done this act, and never with anyone but you._  He knows she would smile, knows she would reach out and cradle his face gently and tell him that love was good. _But I do not love her._ And he did not, but the warmth of her body and the sweetness of her breath and the very human way she looked at him was mesmerizing in a way that was not love but something similar, and intriguing. Would Tauriel approve of me now, would she see that I too can be soft?

The human woman smiles at him, tells him to stop thinking, to focus on her, and Thranduil lets his wife and his daughter leave his mind for the first time in weeks.

 **  
**When it is over, and she is curled sleeping against him, her skin flushed against his side, his hand lightly brushing over her hair, Thranduil closes his eyes. He remembers his wedding, how his wife looked in her gold gown, how her eyes shone when she looked at him. He remembers their vows, their first true kiss, the swelling as she carried their son. The pure joy of her laugh, and her smile, and her hair like sunlight all come back to him, and his heart aches. He wishes his son could have known his mother, how lovely she was, how brave, and he wishes Tauriel could have known her, and seen how Thranduil did in fact know love. Mostly he wishes it was his wife’s hair he was stroking and his wife’s eyes that blinked open sleepily at him, but it is not, and it will never be again.


	5. better see that you keep what you have

The days pass in a flurry of grey. His woods are dying, the name Mirkwood whispered even beyond his borders now, and he cannot stop it. He walks along the trees, older than he is, and he mourns them.

The war was supposed to save them, he thinks angrily, save them and my people, but my people are dying too. There have been no elflings born this year, and too many leaving. Too many deciding the time had passed for their race, and sailing into the west. Like the trees, they are weakening.

_Should I move my people? Move them farther into the gloom, move them to safety, or should I stay here, hold the lands my father did, no matter the cost? Ada, why is being king so hard?_

His hair reflects the gentle sunlight, and his mind is made.

_We shall stay._

_My children cannot find us if we move._

  
Thranduil knows it is selfish, but he has been selfless for years. It is time to be selfish _now._


End file.
